Lhasa, the heart and soul of Tibet, abode of the Dalai Lamas, an object of devout pilgrimage, is still, a city of wonders. As the beautiful capital city of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), Lhasa is situated in the South Central part of the region, on the North bank of the Kyichu River (Lhasa River) in a mountain-fringed valley. This ancient sprawling city, settled 1,300 years ago, covers 30,000 square kilometers (11,583 square miles), with a population of 400,000, of which 87 percent are Tibetans. The urban population is 180,000.

The Potala is divided into two sections--an outer section, the White Palace, and an inner section, the Red Palace, the latter containing the temples and reliquary tombs of the Dalai Lamas. The entire building is a structure of stone and timber. At a height of 117 meters, the Potala was the world's tallest building until 20th-century architects designed cityscapes of new buildings that far surpassed the Potala in height--but not in its architectural majesty.

The Jokhang Temple was built on the former site of a lake. According to the legend, the lake site was chosen after many failed attempts to build a temple in the region. Prior to this, every time a temple was built, it would collapse. Confused by this phenomenon, Princess Bhrikuti turned to Wen Cheng for help. Being a learned woman, Wen Cheng told the Princess that the geography of Tibet was very much like a hag, with the lake at the heart. In order to build the temple, Wen Cheng advised they must demolish the hag by filling and leveling the lake using 1,000 sheep to carry soil from a mountain far away. When the temple was done, it was called Ra-Sa-Vphrul-Snang ('ra' meaning sheep and 'sa' meaning earth in Tibetan) to commemorate those sheep.

The Barkhor is the oldest street in Lhasa as well as the center of old Lhasa and remains very traditional. It is a place where Tibetan culture, economy, religion and arts are assembled..... To sum up, Barkhor Street is a place full of religious atmosphere and a world of exotic articles. If you have been attracted by it, you should go there. Believe your eyes, and you will get a lot of surprise there.

It is a park formerly used as a bathing spot by the 7th Dalai Lama in mid-18th century and later expanded to be the summer palace for the Dalai Lama in the beginning and mid-20th century during the 14th Dalai Lama periods. The summer palace of the 14th Dalai Lama attracts most visiters by its well designed structure and surroundings comsed of green turves, colorful flowers, evergreen trees, bamboo and apple orchards.

The Drepung dates back to the early 15th century and lies about 7km west of Lhasa. In its time it was the largest of Tibet's monastic towns and, some maintain, the largest monastery in the world. Today, the total number of monks in residence here has dwindled from 7000 to around 400..

About 4km north of Lhasa,this monastery was founded in 1419 by a disciple of Tsong Khapa. About 300 monks are now in residence, well down from an original population of around 5000. Debating taks place from 3pm in a garden next to the central assembly hall(Jepa Duchen)in the centre of the monastery.